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Former Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne may have been out of office for close to a year and half by now, but the outstanding catering bills of some of his meetings remain unpaid till today.

The total outstanding amount is Rs. 2,174,178 for several events for which catering was done by Hilton Colombo Residences between July 20, 2014 and December 2014. The invoice for the expenses was sent to the Prime Minister’s Secretary in February 2015, by which time there was a new PM in office.

However, as the bill remained unsettled for the past year, the Director of Finance of the Hilton Colombo Residences had written to the Prime Minister’s Secretary Saman Ekanayaka, asking that the outstanding amount be settled.

“I would like to bring to your kind attention the outstanding payments for PM’s meetings catering events which were held between 20 July 2014 and 19 December 2014. We have been requested to cater for the meeting events by the former PM’s Public Relations Secretary K.A. Dharmadasa, P.A to the PM Shirash Mammoud and Senior Assist Secretary M.H.G. Bandara,” the letter states.

In the letter, the Finance Director has requested the assistance of the incumbent Prime Minister’s Secretary Ekanayaka to collect the outstanding amount. The bills are for several outdoor catering events as well as transportation charges, beverages and charges for entertainment.

But, the Prime Minister’s office has returned the letter saying the outstanding amount must be obtained from the persons who placed the order.

Mahendran smiles but President not impressed

Amid a looming foreign exchange crisis and increasing taxes being heaped on the people, the Central Bank presented its annual report for 2015 to the leaders of the National Unity Government this week. To say that the people are getting disillusioned with the way their leaders are handling the economy, and the leaders with the way their financial wizards are managing the economy is now an open secret.

Sometimes pictures tell the story better than words. The photograph above shows the Central Bank Governor, a smiling Arjuna Mahendran, presenting the annual report to a glum looking President Maithripala Sirisena, who has more often than once said that if those in charge of finance cannot find the a way of the crisis without burdening the people, they must go home. “We can’t be telling the people we don’t have money all the time,” he has said.

In what was an eyebrow raising statement he made recently, he said that he got to know that an increase in VAT was being imposed through the newspapers. That was a damning statement to make reflecting poorly on him as well as those in charge of the country’s finances.

He announced that henceforth he, the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister would form a trinity that will manage the country’s finance and that economic advisors of the Government must also be sent home. The Presidential sentiments have been echoed by the Prime Minister himself, but somewhat more lightly. He has advised the Finance Minister to “talk less and do more”. He gave this advice minutes after the presentation of the Bank’s 2015 annual report. The Prime Minister has asked the Finance Minister to put his house in order without faulting others.

This has led to the buck stopping at the hapless Finance Minister’s door and to speculation that a Cabinet reshuffle is in the offing and he is to be one of the victims. But the US$ 1.5 billion question is who would replace him. Going by the stick the Finance Minister is taking, no one seems to envy his portfolio.

Media Secretary eats his own words
The New Media Secretary Nimal Bopage, a lawyer by profession, was in the spotlight a day after he assumed duties. That was after he said that the use of the word ‘Ekabadda Vipakkshaya’ (Joint Opposition) – a term used to refer to the UPFA faction of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa — could have legal implications and the media should reconsider using the term.

Hours after Mr. Bopage issued his statement the electronic media and thereafter the print media raised concerns about the statement made by him. They were questioning him on as to which of the laws they would be violating by using the term. Mr. Bopage was forced to call a news conference on Friday, after Media Minister Gayantha Karunatillake disassociated himself from the statement.

Mr. Bopage not only conceded that the statement was not sanctioned by the minister or his deputy, but also admitted that the term does not violate any law. He was asked by journalists that as to why he did not refer it to the Attorney General’s Department for an opinion. He said if the journalists were to make a request he could make such a request, but he did not want to refer it on his own.

Mattala telephones at receiving end of huge bills
The Auditor General has made a query from the Civil Aviation Authority about the excess telephone lines with internet facilities at the Authority’s branch at Mattala Airport where there are two officers on duty but 12 phone lines are being maintained.

The AG in his query earlier this month noted that the monthly internet charge of each phone is Rs. 3,000 while the maintaining of PABX (private automatic branch exchange, the automatic telephone switching system) for each phone costs Rs. 7,250.

Hence, the Civil Aviation Authority is paying Rs. 123,000 annually for telephones lines which are largely lying idle, the AG noted in his query. The AG has asked the Authority to send in its views on this matter as to why measures have not been taken to disconnect the telephone lines which are not utilised.

Dilan attacks media on SLFP split
At least one SLFP State Minister in Government is miffed with the media for overplaying the differences within the party.
He is Highways State Minister Dilan Perera who has in the past few weeks, when asked about a possible split in the SLFP, instead of answering the question, thrown it straight back to the journalist asking why they don’t show the same interest in internal strife within the country’s other political parties.

A journalist who called him this week was among those who were at the receiving end of Mr. Perera’s berating. “There are differences in the UNP and the Sajith Premadasa faction has been sidelined now but you didn’t report on that. There is a split in the JVP and the Peratugami Pakshaya. There is a split in the TNA and in the SLMC but these are ignored. It is only in the internal problems of the SLFP all the media organisations are interested in,” he said.

Wigneswaran portrayed as sick-note CM
Chief Minister C.V .Wigneswaran, it seems, has been finding it hard to keep to his scheduled meetings.
The latest was yesterday when an event where the submissions of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) to the proposed new Constitution were to be handed over to Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan.

The NPC informed the councillors to consider this event as a “special sitting of the council” and asked 38 members to be present when the “historical document” as they termed it was to be handed over. One of the councillors said the Chief Minister has claimed that he was not well on a couple of occasions.

Earlier, a scheduled meeting with President Maithripala Sirisena had to be postponed as the Chief Minister was unwell. A previous meeting with the TNA leader Sampanthan too was postponed last month. Speculation was rife in the North as to whether Wigneswaran was suffering from any ‘political sickness’ or it was genuine health issues.

He was well enough, however, to meet the visiting Swedish Foreign Minister, though unfortunately for him, he didn’t get the response he expected from her for his political adventurism in proposing Federalism in Sri Lanka.